Environment ministry to talk to DPR over bill

Environment ministry to talk to DPR over bill

Muninggar Sri Saraswati
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

In response to public outcry over the deliberation of the water
resources draft bill, State Minister for the Environment Nabiel
Makarim has promised to bring their complaints to the House of
Representatives (DPR).

"We will recommend that the House listen to the public," he
told The Jakarta Post on Thursday in his office.

He praised the public for voicing their objections to the
bill's deliberation, but stopped short of saying whether his
office had any objections to the bill.

The bill is widely protested for what opponents and critics
say its failure to address the interest of the common people.

The deliberation of the bill, which was initially expected to
be completed this week, has been postponed following public
protests.

The House will go into recess on Friday and will resume its
session on Oct. 24.

The bill is expected to be passed into law by the end of the
year.

Many have said the bill was drafted with the sole purpose of
commercializing water, as the bill considers water a commodity.
For example, an article in the bill stipulates that a province
may export water with approval from the central government.

Early this year, the Ministry of Settlement and Regional
Infrastructure announced its plan to export water from Riau to
neighboring Singapore.

Critics also say the bill has failed to address issues on
water resources conservation.

Minister of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno
had said earlier that conservation issues would be addressed in
other laws, prompting critics to charge that the ministry only
wanted to exploit water, but placed the burden of conservation on
other ministries, such as the environment ministry and forestry
ministry.

Nabiel pointed out that water was a critical issue, as people
could not predict the state of future water supplies.

"We don't know about the future quantity nor quality of water
supplies, they depend on the quality of the environment," he
said, adding that illegal logging remained a major problem in the
country's efforts to protect its environment and thus, its water
resources.

The ministry has announced that Java, Bali and East Nusa
Tenggara have suffered the most from water shortages this year.
Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua still have vast
water supplies of 453.6 billion cubic meters, against 23.7
billion cubic meters of demand.

However, recent data from the environment ministry indicated
that water demand in those provinces will increase to 26.8
billion cubic meters by 2020, while supplies will decline due to
unchecked deforestation.

Data from the forestry ministry this year revealed that
some 43 of 120.35 million hectares of forests have been
devastated by illicit activities, with a degradation rate of 2.1
million hectares per year.

The affected forests are mainly located in Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam, North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Central
Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi and Papua.

State Minister Research and Technology M. Hatta Radjasa has
also voiced his objection to an article in the bill, which
stipulates that the private sector may modify the weather through
cloud seeding.

"It might potentially create regional conflicts," he said.

Hatta mentioned that people often objected to cloud seeding
projects carried out by the Agency for the Assessment and
Application of Technology (BPPT) for various reasons, despite
their being approved by the central and provincial governments.
He did not elaborate.